Three Roads Blog

Archive Page 23 of 25

Poop in the food

Published on October 10, 2007 in Uncategorized.

The timeless maxim “Don’t shit where you eat” has saved countless lives over the centuries. And the societies that have most closely followed this imperative have, throughout history, dominated the world, starting with the Romans, whose empire was built on and with its systems of public sanitation.

We’ve since expanded upon “don’t shit where you eat.” Now, it’s “Don’t eat anything that has come close to any kind of fecal matter, human or animal, unless it has been thoroughly scrubbed, sterilized and disinfected.” And but for a few cases here and there, we’ve been successful in implementing this mandate.

But what if a little shit was good for you? And what if our totally shit-less diet was turning us into a bunch of wusses who can’t survive the occasional tainted patty from Sam’s Club? That is, more or less, the argument that Slate writer and practicing doctor Kent Sepkowitz put forth recently. (Ironic last name, eh?) I think he’s got a great point.

Continue reading ‘Poop in the food’

Bike safety starts with a wig

Published on October 10, 2007 in Uncategorized.

Here is some angst that anyone who rides a bike on public roads can appreciate:

Every day on my way to work, I mentally compose a book as I ride my bike through the streets of DC. This book is aimed at the pedestrians and cars who seem ignorant of the basic physics of bicycles–the pedestrians who act as if my bicycle and I were a slow-moving car, and the cars that act as if we were a pedestrian. The book would be aimed at communicating one simple, but apparently incredibly difficult to grasp, concept: unlike a slow-moving car or a pedestrian, I cannot suddenly stop or reverse direction.

Today I composed Chapter Three: The Reason I Want to Get into the Right Lane is That It’s Dangerous Over Here On the Left (And Not That I Have Failed to Sufficiently Appreciate the Grandeur of Your Magnificent Internal Combustion Vehicle). This is the follow-up to Chapter Two: If You Run a Red Light and Hit Me (Because I Can’t Stop) I Will Die Even Though I Am Wearing a Helmet. Chapter Four will be the first of our many chapters aimed at pedestrians; I have tentatively titled it “Pedestrians Who Leap Out in Front of Me and Get Hit (Because I Can’t Stop) Will Probably Get Hurt Worse Than Me, the Helmeted Bicyclist”.

It’s a work in progress.

Perhaps she (Megan McArdle, blogger for the Atlantic) should consider not wearing a helmet. Recent research shows that cars tend to drive closer to helmeted riders. The study also showed that cars give a wider berth to riders with long hair. My question, of course, is what about mullets, which are sort of short and sort of long? I fear that cars may drive even closer to mulleted riders.

Funny juxtaposition

Published on October 9, 2007 in music and trends.

Here are the two biggest news stories to come from the recording industry in the past week:

1. The indie band Radiohead decided to let fans choose how much to they’re willing to pay for their new album. The lowest acceptable price? $0.00.

2. A group of record labels successfully sued a Minnesota woman (a single mom earning $36,000 a year) for illegally downloading music from a popular file-sharing site called Kazaa. The woman must pay $222,000 in damages, which amounts to $9,250 per illegally downloaded song.

Photo (of Radiohead singer Thom Yorke) from Michell Zappa

On hand dryers

Published on October 8, 2007 in trends.

Here’s a great post on why restroom hand dryers are both unsanitary and, at best, environmentally equal to paper towels.

They are alleged to be more hygienic than hand towels. I don’t buy that for a second, because they “dry” your hands by blasting them with recirculated air from the restroom itself. You didn’t think there was a canister of fresh air hidden behind the wall, did you? And guess what’s probably floating around in the restroom air. That’s right, tiny particles of you-know-what. (I will concede that the hand dryer is nonetheless hygienically preferable to the continuous-roll-of-cloth machine.)

“Tiny particles of you-know-what.” Ew.

As much as I share this guy’s dislike of hand dryers, I understand why they’re popular. If it were my job to clean a bathroom—or if it were my job to pay a guy to clean a one—I’d surely oppose paper towel use, mostly because only half of population (by my estimate) manages to land their wet towels in the waste basket.

And any person of sound mind opposes the roll-of-cloth machine. Regardless of its minimal ecological footprint and/or low maintenance costs, these things ought to be outlawed. It’s one thing to use a cotton towel in a friend’s bathroom. It’s quite another to use one in a public restroom.

Back to hand dryers: I also credit a hand dryer for staving off hypothermia two summers ago. After riding our bikes to the top of Mt. Evans, in Colorado, my girlfriend and I rode down the 14,000-foot mountain in a torrential downpour. We used the dryers in the welcome center bathrooms to dry our clothes. (Side note: It’s funny what near-hypothermia can do to an otherwise quite modest person: I had no problems standing half-naked in a busy public bathroom while holding my wet bike clothes under the dryer.)

Photo from A Nameless Yeast

Opportunity vs. freedom

Published on October 4, 2007 in uncategorized.

Last week, I blogged about how Americans may have a preference for economic opportunity to economic equality.

Well, after reading a few articles on what’s happening in Russia, it would seem that, judging by Putin’s popularity despite his increasing authoritarianism, Russians prefer economic opportunity to personal freedom.

Russia is experiencing an economic boom, and it seems many Russians attribute it, rightly or wrongly, to Putin. So they look the other way as he prepares to only symbolically leave the presidency. It’s clear that he’s planning to re-wire the political structure so that when he takes over as prime minister, he’ll still have total control.

It’s hard to tell how much potential for tyranny Putin has. He certainly registers high on the creepy scale.

The Shepard’s Dog

Published on October 3, 2007 in music.

If you haven’t already, be sure to put down some greenbacks for the new Iron and Wine album, The Shepard’s Dog. You won’t be disappointed. Pitchfork gets it right:

The Shepherd’s Dog is Iron & Wine’s most diverse and progressive album yet, a deft transition to a very different sound that explores new territory while preserving the best aspects of Beam’s earlier recordings.

Some tracks evoke Fleetwood Mac and CSNY.

Check out the full Pitchfork review here.

Opportunity vs. equality

Published on October 1, 2007 in uncategorized.

What I found was that economic inequality doesn’t frustrate Americans at all. It is, rather, the perceived lack of economic opportunity that makes us unhappy…

If the egalitarians are right, then average happiness levels should be falling. But they aren’t. The GSS shows that in 1972, 30 percent of the population said that they were “very happy” with their lives; in 1982, 31 percent; in 1993, 32 percent; in 2004, 31 percent. In other words, no significant change in reported happiness occurred—even as income inequality increased by nearly half.

I think this guy is on to something, but I think he makes a mistake in his rush to prove the egalitarians wrong. While I would agree with the notion that people prefer (when given the option) opportunity to equality, I think there are scenarios in which Americans would become frustrated with economic inequality.

In a situation of declining opportunity and rising inequality, I suspect that people would quickly develop a desire for greater equality. If people in the last 30 years are happy despite rising inequality, I would say that that’s because opportunity has kept pace with inequality. But the moment the middle and lower classes stop advancing and the rich continue to prosper, I think that happiness (that is, happiness with economic status) will decline. Of course, you could still say that, in such a scenario, any unhappiness is the result of a lack of opportunity and not of a lack of equality.

But our history doesn’t support that view, particularly when you look at the last century, which witnessed the creation of a handful of huge entitlement programs, antitrust and civil rights legislation, and a more progressive tax structure. In other words, if we’re cool with economic inequality, why have we worked so hard to reduce it over the last 100 years?

Yes, Americans prefer opportunity to equality when given the option. I would also contend that they have an egalitarian streak as well. And I think that stems from the idea that public policy can be shaped to allow for greater opportunity, which, in turn, leads to greater equality.

What a lot of free market proponents assume is that economic opportunity is a purely natural phenomenon, and that policymakers ought to just get out of the way. They also imply that egalitarians seek to step on the rich in order to help the poor, but egalitarianism isn’t simply redistribution of wealth. It’s about creating a level playing field, where economic opportunity is available to the greatest number.

Hat tip: Marginal Revolution